The Chains We Tighten
by Beyond An Anomaly
Summary: This life isn't meant for everyone, my dear.
Whenever she needed her, she whistled.

Nina's chapped lips curved into a cracked "O" shape, as nothing but dry air crawled out. The silence made her scream again, as all she could hear was the whistling of her own creation.

It killed millions.

Millions.

"Euphemia, I…"

The wall felt freezing against her cheek, and pressing against it pushed her glasses askew along her nose. Lenses smudged, dotted with her dried tears, and a small crack began to form in her right lens when she tossed her glasses across the room the moment she realized her creation actually worked.

Her neck stiffened as her body rejected the oxygen she trapped herself in for days.

(*)

"I can't believe this."

"Believe what?"

"The fact that children are being wrapped up into this war. Being used as…soldiers."

Cecile clenched her hands tightly together, pursing her lips and letting the bottom row of her teeth sink into them, as if that would prevent crying.

"They're hardly children, Cecile." Lloyd stared out the window, away from his quivering assistant.

She folded her arms as she looked down at the speckles of dirt on the tips of her loafers. She had so much to say at the point where it all cancelled out.

"Do you not care about him?"

For the first time, he slowly turned to face her, seeing streams making their way down from her glazed eyes to her sullen cheekbones. She scratched at a stain on her shirt that wasn't there; nervous tick.

Yes, nervous. Good word for it.

He came no closer, as he turned his head back to the dilapidated skyline, speaking softly to the atmosphere.

As if he could hear him.

"Of course I do."

"Well, you sure have a funny way of showing it, don't you, Lloyd?"

The scientist pushed up his spectacles like they were going to slip off his nose, like her stammering was an earthquake.

"Cecile-"

"Lloyd, it's over, don't you get it?!" Cecile balled her fists into her eyes, "MILLIONS of people have died. Our families. Our friends. Your son, almost."

"He's not my son."

"Well, he may as well be." Cecile looked up at the back of Lloyd's head, shaking hers. "Don't you know that Suzaku actually looks up to you? Do you even care?"

He smirks to himself, gently sipping his tea while peering down at the imaginary wreckage below.

"I can't imagine why anyone would." he chuckles softly.

(*)

"I'm Nina Einstein. Huge admirer of your work."

He shook her hand. Didn't feel even a faint pulse.

She's perfect, he thought.

(*)

She cradled herself into Lloyd's arms. The man in the world she hated the most, and yet the salvation when there was none.

"I just want to go home. I can't do this anymore."

"Where is home for you, Cecile?"

She never did tell him. He already knew.

(*)

He pushed up his glasses as he watched her work.

The keys had a rhythm to them as she typed rapidly, with her pupils dilating with every other line of code she calculated.

"So you've been doing this for a while, I'll take it."

She nodded, giving no further responses.

Her glasses were falling, dark green hair frazzling and drooping over her frames. Beads of sweat were forming quickly on her forehead as if on an osmosis-infested cup, and her teeth snapped over her lower lip; Lloyd couldn't tell from the green computer light if the trickle was blood or saliva.

Then, suddenly, as if a button was pressed within her brain, she immediately stopped what she was doing and murmured, "Would you like to see my handiwork, Earl Asplund?"

He slowly headed to her desk, peering over her shoulder.

FLEIJA.

"Curious."

"A personal opus, I must say." she didn't sound proud, nor hurt.

"All of this to destroy one man."

"Anything for her. It's what she would want."

Unsure how to respond, he made his way out of the room, murmuring, "Right."

(*)

With her, everything felt wrong.

"Lloyd…"

He felt robotic around her, the smell of apples and the taste of cherry pie. The way her body would twist in his arms, beckoning his hands to swing down her shoulders, back, hips. Her bare skin felt soft but horrible. He was nowhere near human enough for her.

Dissonance was real, and it had a name.

Milly.

Her lips traced down his neck, nails sinking into his scalp as she planted her mouth on his shoulder blade.

Without his glasses, all he could see was the halo above him that was her bedroom light.

The more her heart pumped, the faster his time of death came. She kissed death repeatedly and clung onto his outstretched hand like it would save her.

"Milly."

She lifted herself up from his shoulder, resting her chest on his as her blue eyes shot themselves into his.

"Yes, love?"

He sunk into his pillow.

"Why do you feel this way about me?"

She twirled a stray piece of frizzled, lavender hair.

"Do you need a reason to love something?" she chuckled softly.

"Humor me, at least."

Her elbow perched itself atop his ribcage, adding pressure to his chest that was never there.

"You…" she trailed off, "Interest me, Lloyd."

"I interest you."

"Very much. More than anyone else has, really."

(*)

"YOU BITCH!"

Nina threw her glass at Milly, covering her blue dress with red wine and the floor with fragmented glass.

"No one ever talks about her that way! She was my goddess, my everything! How dare you defile her name in front of me!"

"Nina, I don't know what you're-"

"I have a life outside of you, you know. Ashford Academy leaves a sour taste in my mouth. None of you childish idiots ever helped me, you know."

"W-What…" her eyes quivered as she stuttered, "What are you talking about, Nina?"

"The only thing I ever cared about in this entire damn world is gone now. She saved my life. My soul. Don't you get it?"

"I…"

"Screw it. You of all people would have no idea what true love actually is, would you?"

The girl's blue eye twitched as she sank with her back against the wall. Nina stormed out of the scene she created, while Lloyd noticed with sorrowful interest that Milly had nothing else to say.

(*)

Nina laughed to herself as she typed in the last snippet of code.

"One click, and it will all be over."

Lloyd had nothing to say at her closing her eyes and smiling softly. She seemed human, if only for a moment.

Dissonance changed its name.

(*)

"Don't touch me."

"I'm only doing what you're doing to me, Cecile. Don't you want to be comforted?"

"You…you disgust me."

"I disgust myself."

The lanky bones of his fingers laced through Cecile's ebony hair, her plump cheek against his shoulder.

"They…they're children. They should be at home."

"Where is home?"

"You're looking at it."

The facility was beautifully equipped. All computers aligned. Lights row after row. A window stretching to either side that was bulletproof and scratch-free, without a single blue sky to be seen.

"I hate myself."

Lloyd's lips curved into a smile as if it could break at any moment.

"Out of everyone here, why do you hate yourself?"

"I…" Cecile stammered, "I could have done something. I didn't have to be chained to this job."

"But here we are."

"H-Here we are."

(*)

Her throat tightened when she whistled for her.

The news flicked on, and Nina was too feeble to throw something at her again.

She only picked out words the blonde news reporter said.

Millions.

Millions.

Einstein.

Causalities.

Genocide.

Millions.

Einstein.

Only eighteen.

FLEIJA.

Reverence.

Embrace your children.

"This is Milly Ashford, signing off."

The static tore her ears apart.

(*)

"Do you love anything?"

Lloyd clung to his assistant like it was his own chest.

He no longer had anything to say as he thought of her glasses and the way she smiled at hell itself.

She planted her lips against his, letting her bones fall apart. All she saw when she opened her eyes was lavender, and it was as beautiful as she never wanted it to be. A gust of his breath entered her lungs as he placed his hand over her chest.

A beat.

Cecile pulled away and buried her face into his neck, letting her lips tickle his collarbone and her tears delicately trace down his jacket.

"Lloyd?"

He tilted his head.

"Why are we still here? Why did we let this happen?"

Her finger pulled down the zipper of his jacket, letting her hand crawl inside to feel something so faint it couldn't be real.

"Sometimes all we wish to be is destroyed, my dear." he whispered.

(*)

The flashing pink button was in her hands. One click, and it was over.

All he could do was walk away.

They whistled.

But no one came as her chains tightened around the trigger.

She whistled.

And whistled.

And let her childish soul remain destroyed.


End file.
